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A  Community  Message 
to  the  Brotherhood 


EUROPE 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  COMMITTEE  OF 
YOUNG  MEN’S  CHRISTIAN  ASSOCIATIONS 

347  Madison  Avenue,  New  York 


Europe 

KARL  FRIES,  Ph.  D. 

General  Secretary,  World’s  Committee,  Young  Men’s  Christian  Associations,  Geneva,  Switzerland 

Europe  is  not  America!  It  must  seem  funny  to  Americans  who 
are  used  to  traveling  by  the  fastest  trains  for  six  days  from  one  end 
of  their  country  to  the  other,  when  making  a  voyage  in  Europe  to 
knock  up  against  custom  and  passport  barriers  every  few  hours. 
These  barriers  are  not  only  a  great  bother  to  the  traveler ;  they  also 
denote  considerable  difference  in  national  characteristics,  habits,  and 
traditions.  Traditions — yes,  they  play  a  large  part  in  Europe. 
When  you  try  to  analyze  the  features  that  meet  you  in  the  appearance 
of  buildings,  in  methods  of  everyday  life,  even  in  small  details,  you 
will  find  that  in  most  cases  they  have  their  roots  far  back  in  the  Mid¬ 
dle  Ages.  Tradition  makes  its  influence  felt  even  in  those  countries 
which  pride  themselves  on  being  most  progressive  in  their  politics. 
Nothing  short  of  the  revolutions  caused  by  the  World  War  have  been 
necessary  for  shaking  some  of  these  countries  out  of  their  age-long 
ruts.  The  retracing  of  the  map  of  Europe,  with  the  subsequent  grouping  of  elements  of  population 
which  for  centuries  have  been  separated  in  their  political  and  ecclesiastical  connections,  has 
produced  a  pliability  which  Europe  has  probably  not  witnessed  since  the  days  of  the  Reformation. 
In  these  countries  affected  by  these  changes  conditions  have  been  created  which  in  some  measure 
resemble  those  obtaining  in  America.  A  new  national  consciousness  is  developing  in  a  population 
composed  of  many  heterogeneous  elements.  Hence  an  imperative  need  for  shaping  new  forms 
of  political  and  community  life.  The  governments  are  conscious  of  their  limitations  in  front  of 
these  tasks  and  of  the  tremendous  demand  for  able  and  reliable  leaders  and  are  willing  to  accept 
any  useful  offer  of  help  toward  the  solution  of  their  problem.  It  seems  to  me  providential  that 
the  American  Y.  M.  C.  A.’s,  guided  by  the  generous  policy  which  was  inaugurated  in  1889,  and 
which  in  their  Foreign  Work  has  brought  forth  such  wonderful  fruits  in  the  Far  East,  has!  ^en led 
at  this  time,  through  their  magnificent  service  first  among  prisoners  of  war,  then  among  soldiers, 
and  finally  among  civilian  young  men,  to  bring  to  bear  their  influence  in  these  countries  and  to 
inculcate  their  experience  ripened  in  the  school  of  life.  If  I  correctly  understand  the  principles 
underlying  the  Community  Work  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  they  seem  to  me  to  have  their  best  chance 
in  some  of  these  ‘mew”  countries  of  Europe. 

Unfortunately  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.’s  in  most  of  the  European  countries  during  the  decades 
preceding  the  war,  had  not  succeeded  in  securing  that  social  respect  and  popularity  which  they 
enjoy  in  America.  I  have  often  wondered  why,  and  again  coming  back  to  the  influence  of  trad¬ 
ition,  I  am  inclined  to  attribute  this  in  some  measure  at  least  to  the  mistakes,  not  to  say  anything 
worse,  made  by  the  Church  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Digressing  from  its  original  purpose  it  became 
engrossed  in  political  pursuits  and  showed  a  remarkable  lack  of  willingness  to  render  unselfish 
social  service.  This  has  created  in  the  minds  of  the  great  majority  of  the  people  a  contempt 
and  dislike  for  what  is  officially  called  Christianity,  which  raises  tremendous  obstacles  in  the  way 
of  an  organization  which  calls  itself  and  wants  to  be  Christian.  It  is  only  through  the  irrefutable 
testimony  of  labors  of  love  and  through  a  reinterpretation  of  the  meaning  of  true  Christianity 
by  individual  lives  regenerated  by  the  Spirit  of  God  that  these  prejudices  can  be  overcome. 
But  prejudices  die  hard  and  we  must  be  prepared  for  up-hill  work  all  the  time.  The  optimistic 
enthusiasm  and  contagious  courage  of  our  American  brethren  are  greatly  needed  in  this  work 
and  I  sincerely  hope  that  the  magnificently  generous  contribution  which  they  have  made  and  are 
making  in  the  shaping  of  a  new  Europe  will  leave  traces  which,  by  the  very  tendency  toward 
tradition  which  is  characteristic  of  this  continent,  will  extend  its  beneficent  influence  over  a 
long  future. 


Europe  and  the  Community-wide  Association  Program 


DARIUS  A.  DAVIS 


Senior  Secretary  for  Europe,  Geneva,  Switzerland 


Europe,  a  mighty  word ! 
Europe,  from  which 
have  flowed  rivers  of 
life;  life  which  has 
affected  every  conti¬ 
nent,  every  race.  Where 
is  the  nation  that  has 
not  been  enriched  by  its 
blood,  ennobled  by  its 
thought,  blessed  by  its 
saints  and  m  a  r  t  y  r  s  ? 
Have  the  rivers 
dwindled  into  trickling  streams  or  entirely 

ceased  to  flow?  Has  the  fountain  dried?  Or  have 

the  rivers  of  life  smitten  by  some  terrible  enchant¬ 
er’s  rod  been  changed  into  rivers  of  destruction 
and  death? 

However  one  answers,  one  must  admit  that 
something  has  happened  in  Europe.  Something 
elemental,  epoch-making. 

What  are  the  signs  of  this  new  day  in  the  Old 
Continent? 


1.  The  Birth  of  New  Nations.  A  trite  state¬ 
ment  in  these  extraordinary  days.  There  is  in  it 
nothing  trite  for  the  newly  born  nor  for  the 
country  from  whose  side  the  rib  was  taken.  In 
the  simple  words  of  a  Latvian  student:  “After 
700  years  of  foreign  service,  we  are  free!  It  is  true, 
physically  we  still  suffer  very  much.  Yet  some¬ 
thing  wonderful  is  happening,  even  the  air  is 
different.” 

They  are  living  their  1779  to  1783.  Nation 
building  is  a  task  that  challenges  not  only  ability 
but  also  character.  Principles  on  which  es¬ 
tablished  nations  were  built  are  being  found 
unsuitable  to  present-day  nation  construction. 
Therefore  nation  building  today,  and  especially 
when  many  are  being  built  at  the  same  time, 
requires  intellectual,  social,  economic,  and  religious 
renovation  and  reconstruction,  very  often  new 
construction. 

In  spite  of  the  dreams  of  centuries  having  come 
true  there  is  only  a  partial  realization  of  the  great¬ 
ness  and  significance  of  what  has  really  taken 
place.  Only  gradually  are  these  new  nations 
realizing  the  extent  and  seriousness  of  the  re¬ 
sponsibility  which  comes  with  freedom  if  freedom, 


and  not  license  under  the  guise  of  freedom,  is  to 
be  their  lot. 

2.  Altered  Nations.  Some  idea  of  the  extent  to 
which  Europe  has  been  geographically  altered  may 
be  gained  from  the  fact  that  only  five  of  the 
twenty-one  independent  nations  including  colonies 
retain  their  pre-war  boundaries.  In  many  cases 
the  economic,  intellectual,  and  moral  changes  in 
the  altered  nations  are  scarcely  less  profound  than 
in  the  new  nations.  The  result  is  that  when  we 
think  of  New  Europe  we  must  think  of  the  con¬ 
tinent,  not  of  a  few  countries  whose  names  appear 
for  the  first  time  in  our  generation  on  the  map. 
Europe,  molten,  plastic!  Europe! 

3.  Broken  Traditions.  The  dead  hand  of  the 
past  is  releasing,  in  not  a  few  instances  has  released, 
its  strangle  hold  on  the  present  and  the  hope  of 
the  future.  One  has  only  to  be  served  in  restaur¬ 
ants  by  countesses  and  even  princesses,  to  have 
generals  and  railroad  presidents  run  one’s  errands, 
see  titled  people  take  in  boarders ;  and  on  the  other 
hand  to  see  clerks,  peasants,  and  humble  craftsmen 
running  governments  and  directing  great  enter¬ 
prises,  to  realize  that  traditions  are  broken.  The 
depth  of  meaning  in  this  statement  is  further 
realized  when  one  sees  thousands  of  students  who 
only  five  years  ago  considered  manual  labor  not 
only  a  disgrace,  but  an  absolute  impossibility,  now 
priding  themselves  on  working  with  their  hands 
to  earn  their  way  through  universities.  Yes,  when 
European  universities  change  their  schedules  and 
run  classes  from  7  to  9  A.  M.  and  from  4  to  10  P.  M. 
in  order  to  enable  the  students  to  earn  their 
living,  the  grip  of  the  past  has  been  mightily 
loosened. 

i  In  agricultural  life  is  it  less  evolutionary  to  see 
tractors  replace  the  old  wooden  plow  ?  Reapers 
crowd  out  the  sickle  and  motor-run  threshers  cause 
grass  to  grow  on  the  old  ox-trodden  threshing 
floors.  “Our  fathers  did  it  thus”  is  no  longer  a 
reason  that  satisfies.  There  has  been  a  decided 
“about  face”!  People  are  beginning  to  look  for¬ 
ward,  not  back.  Not  what  has  been  but  what  can 
and  will  be  is  the  note  struck  today.  Certainly 
the  present  suffering  is  great  but  the  consciousness 
exists  that  true  greatness  is  born  of  suffering. 
There  is  hope  and  expectation.  This  leads  to  the 
next  evidence  of  a  changed  Europe  which  is: 


3 


4.  A  New  Teachableness.  Prom  the  clay  when 
nations  were  self-satisfied  or  unwilling  to  admit 
that  other  nations  had  something  really  worth 
while  to  teach  them  it  is  a  far  cry  to  the  day  when 
one  sees  them  deliberately  sitting  at  the  feet  of 
other  nations  to  learn  and  embody  in  their  new 
national  constitutions  all  those  elements  which 
have  tended  to  make  the  older  nations  strong  and 
useful.  Not  one  but  many  nations  of  Europe  today 
are  asking  for  the  best  experience  of  other  nations 
along  intellectual,  physical,  and  moral  lines. 

Within  the  last  few  weeks  Roumania  in  con¬ 
nection  with  the  national  effort  for  the  physical, 
intellectual,  and  moral  development  of  her  youth 
has  renewed  her  request  for  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  to 
choose  three  technical  advisers  for  the  government 
for  physical  education.  Leaders  along  other  lines 
are  being  brought  from  other  countries.  Another 
nation  is  now  studying  a  similar  all-inclusive  plan 
of  education  and  has  unofficially  approached  the 
Association  to  know  if  she  is  willing  to  choose  men 
with  the  same  qualities  of  character  and  leadership 
as  she  would  choose  for  her  own  work,  who  will  be 
paid  by  the  inviting  country  and  put  in  charge  for 
a  period  of  five  years  of  different  departments  of 
physical  and  moral  education. 

Several  of  the  countries  of  Europe  are  more 
ready  to  consider,  adapt,  and  try  out  any  success¬ 
fully  worked-out  principle,  or  method,  if  it  promises 
to  develop  real  leaders  of  men,  than  even  America. 

5.  Toleration.  With  the  new  teachableness  has 
come  a  new  spirit  of  toleration.  Especially  this  is 
true  in  countries  where  the  Orthodox  Church  is  the 
established  religion.  In  Russia,  Roumania,  Greece, 
Bulgaria,  and  Serbia  non-Orthodox  Christian 
workers  before  the  war  met  with  suspicion,  if  not 
opposition.  The  war  work  of  the  Association 
has  resulted  not  only  in  a  greater  toleration  but 
even  in  a  real  cooperation,  thus  opening  a  door  of 
service  and  collaboration  to  the  140,000,000  souls 
in  the  Orthodox  Church.  There  is  also  a  new 
toleration  to  be  found  in  other  countries  in  Europe. 
This  does  not  mean  that  all  intolerance  has  ceased. 

6.  New  Internationalism.  While  there  exists  in 
many  countries  unreasoning  nationalism  there  is 
evidence  of  a  new  sense  of  international  depen¬ 
dence  and  cooperation.  For  the  present  this  new 
internationalism  is  being  voiced  particularly 
through  individuals  and  groups  rather  than  offici¬ 
ally  through  governments. 

7.  Weariness  of  Formalism.  The  failure  of 
established  systems,  whether  political,  social, 
economic,  educational,  or  religious,  to  assure  social 


justice  and  international  righteousness  and  racial 
harmony  has  shattered  the  faith  of  the  masses  in 
the  existing  order  of  the  things.  That  a  thing  has 
“always  been  so”  is  no  longer  a  reason  that  con¬ 
vinces  that  it  should  continue  to  be  so.  Today 
men  throughout  Europe  are  applying  to  their 
institutions  this  test:  “Does  it  meet  actual  needs?” 
“Does  it  respond  to  reality?”  Many  are  those 
which  are  not  successfully  meeting  the  test.  This 
weariness  of  lifeless  formalism  is  felt  by  institutions 
as  well  as  by  individuals. 

The  Roman  Catholic  and  Orthodox  Churches 
are  among  the  first  of  the  great  institutions  which 
are  trying  to  adapt  their  methods  and  message  to 
the  new  day.  The  latter  particularly  is  seeking  the 
collaboration  of  those  who  have  had  experience  in 
touching  successfully  the  daily  lives  of  individuals. 
Preaching,  Bible  Study,  Sunday  schools,  common 
use  of  the  New  Testament,  starting  of  social 
service  centers,  distribution  of  literature,  are  some 
of  the  evidences  that  the  spirit  of  life  and  reality 
is  breathing  in  this  wonderful  old  church. 

8.  Reproduction  of  the  Race.  Not  less  sig¬ 
nificant  among  the  signs  of  the  new  day  is  the 
interest  being  manifested  in  many  countries  in  all 
questions  relating  to  the  birth  rate  and  to  the 
reproduction  of  the  race.  North,  south,  east,  and 
west  have  been  heard  to  express  the  conviction 
that  more  precious  than  mines  of  coal,  oil  fields, 
forests,  or  rich  prairies  is  the  manhood  of  the 
nation.  In  countries  where  before  the  war  all 
mention  of  the  ravage  of  venereal  diseases  was 
banned  from  pulpit,  press,  and  home  there  are  now 
active  campaigns  carried  on  through  press,  film, 
and  public  addresses  to  combat  immorality. 
Even  the  most  conservative  and  prudish  nation  no 
longer  looks  on  with  indifference  while  a  large 
proportion  of  its  boys  of  seventeen  and  under  are 
already  leading  immoral  lives. 

One  million  copies  of  an  illustrated  pamphlet 
combating  immorality  and  venereal  diseases  have 
recently  been  published  by  the  Greek  government 
and  are  being  distributed  through  all  the  schools. 
The  Association  has  been  responsible  for  starting 
and  carrying  on  in  cooperation  with  Red  Crosses, 
schools,  and  governments  nation-wide  campaigns 
for  sane  instruction  in  sex  hygiene  in  France  and 
Czechoslovakia. 

The  true  importance  of  interest  in  this  problem 
lies  in  the  fact  that  increasingly  men  are  becoming 
convinced  that: 

9.  Spiritual  Problems  Are  Supreme.  Mr. 
Frank  A.  Yanderlip  said  recently:  “I  see  no  purely 


4 


economic  solution  to  the  problems  of  Europe.  I 
am  becoming  increasingly  convinced  that  the  only 
solution  is  a  spiritual  one.”  At  a  dinner  in  Geneva 
attended  by  outstanding  leaders  of  the  League  of 
Nations  and  representatives  of  other  international 
and  world  organizations  the  same  conviction  was 
strongly  expressed  by  those  present.  Sir  George 
Paish,  one  of  England’s  leading  economists,  has 
expressed  his  opinion  that  “any  solution  of  the 
economic  and  political  problems  of  Europe  must  be 
on  a  spiritual  basis.”  More  and  more  common  are 
becoming  such  expressions  as  “Europe’s  sickness 
is  a  spiritual  sickness,”  “moral  disarmament,” 
“moral  regeneration,”  “change  of  heart,”  etc. 
These  words  are  being  used  not  only  by  religious 
leaders,  but  what  weighs  heavier  with  the  public, 
by  economists,  publicists,  and  statesmen. 

The  same  idea  is  being  expressed  in  one  way  or 
another,  but  always  with  the  emphasis  of  convic¬ 
tion  from  France  to  Constantinople  and  from 
Finland  to  Portugal. 

What  has  all  this  to  do  with  the  Young  Men’s 
Christian  Association?  Simply  this,  that  the 
community-wide  work  and  message  of  the  Associa¬ 
tion  strikes  Europe  now  with  all  the  carrying  force 
and  power  of  a  new  evangel.  To  Europe  un¬ 
shackled,  changing,  resetting  its  moulds,  con¬ 
scious  of  its  weakness  and  needs,  seeking  aid  above 
all  in  the  spiritual  realms  of  leadership  and 
character-building,  comes  the  Association  not 
talking  theory,  not  preaching,  but  exemplifying  in 
the  community  the  life  of  Him  who  went  about 
doing  good,  giving  life,  reality,  service.  The 
example  of  the  message  of  the  Association  never 
fails  to  command  the  attention  and  call  forth  the 
support  of  European  nations.  Individuals  and 
groups  who  have  failed  to  support  the  Association 
have,  nevertheless,  paid  the  highest  compliment 
by  trying  to  imitate  it. 

Why  Does  the  Association  Appeal  To 
Europe  Today? 

1.  The  Association  came  at  the  moment  of  great¬ 
est  national  need.  It  served  where  that  need  was 
most  keenly  felt  at  the  time,  with  the  soldiers. 

2.  Seeing  the  effect  of  the  Association  service  for 
enlisted  men,  Europe  believes  the  Association  is 
capable  of  meeting  similar  needs  in  the  civil 
communities. 

3.  The  Association  unites  communities  composed 
of  different  nationalities,  races,  and  creeds  in  a 
program  of  mutual  helpfulness.  This  is  a  spiritual 
service  of  inestimable  value  to  divided,  unsocialized 
communities  and  is  being  rendered  at  a  moment 
when  it  counts  most  for  individuals  and  the  states. 

4.  It  raises  morale  by  positive  methods  of  training 


and  leadership  demonstrated  at  strategic  centers 
through  groups  with  large  powers  of  radiation. 

5.  It  appeals  to  all  classes  and  creeds  by  exalting 
the  living  Christ.  Not  the  stone  or  wooden  Christ 
of  the  European  country  crossroad  which  typifies 
the  lifeless  form  that  has  made  Christianity 
hateful,  a  veritable  sham  and  hypocrisy  in  the 
minds  of  millions.  In  Europe  Christianity  has 
been  too  much  degraded  to  a  form,  a  political 
party,  a  cause  of  conflict  and  hatred.  The  living 
Christ  through  whatever  medium  presented  is  ever 
powerful  and  meets  the  same  glad  response  in  the 
hearts  of  men  of  all  nations. 

6.  The  Association  comes  at  the  psychological 
moment,  not  only  on  account  of  the  politically, 
socially,  and  intellectually  changing  Europe,  but 
also  because  this  is  the  moment  when  the  Orthodox 
Church  is  planning  to  hold  another  great  ecumen¬ 
ical  council  for  the  express  purpose  of  adapting 
itself  to  modern  needs  and  conditions. 

If  it  is  not  Providence,  what  a  strange  coinci¬ 
dence  has  brought  together  on  a  basis  of  sympathy 
and  confidence  the  Orthodox  Church  which 
controls  the  spiritual  destinies  of  so  many  millions 
of  souls  and  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  with  its  energy, 
resources,  and  experience  in  dealing  with  the  very 
problems  which  above  all  others  are  occupying  the 
attention  of  church  leaders  in  six  countries ! 

Wiiat  Must  Be  the  Characteristics  of  an 
Association  which  Will  Meet  the  Needs  in 
Europe? 

1.  It  must  be  Christ-like  in  approach  and  opera¬ 
tion  as  well  as  in  the  life  of  its  leaders,  directors,, 
and  controlling  members. 

2.  It  must  be  a  movement,  not  a  building  of 
mere  organization.  Its  chief  interest  must  be  the 
establishing  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  not  the  Y.  M. 
C.  A.,  in  communities  and  nations.  Half  measures 
are  not  wanted  by  men  who  are  building  nations. 

3.  It  must  center  its  attention  on  boys  and  men 
under  twenty  years  of  age. 

4.  It  must  from  the  beginning  aim  at  becoming  as 
soon  as  possible  an  institution  of  the  country  where 
it  operates.  • 

5.  It  must  continue  without  interruption  its 
present  work  and  increase  it  in  volume  and  effici¬ 
ency,  but  only  as  fast  as  proper  leaders  and 
adequate  support  can  be  assured. 

Beginning  at  the  psychological  moment  has 
placed  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  in  many  European  coun¬ 
tries  twenty  years  ahead. 

6.  It  must  have  a  long-term  policy. 

Great  epochs  in  Europe  come  rarely.  The 
brotherhood  is  summoned  to  help  channel  the 
rivers  of  influence  in  Europe  for  the  new  epoch. 


5 


Building  the  “Y”  in  Saloniki,  Greece 

UUUS  L.  AMOSS 

Senior  Secretary,  Young  Men’s  Christian  Association,  Saloniki,  Greece 


Over  in  Saloniki,  the 
Association  has  the 
unique  opportunity  of 
serving  an  ancient  city, 
while  at  the  same  time 
it  builds  on  the  founda¬ 
tions  of  a  new  town. 

Even  in  its  inception, 
Saloniki  was  founded 
from  more  ancient  com¬ 
munities.  Over  two 
thousand  two  hundred 
years  ago  King  Cassandra  gathered  up  the  citi¬ 
zens  of  two  adjacent  cities  and  of  twenty-six 
villages  and  established  the  city  which  he  called 
Thessalonica,  in  honor  of  his  wife. 

Since  that  time,  as  before,  Saloniki  has  known 
the  frown  and  smile  of  fortune.  She  has  endured 
the  invasions  of  Persian,  Roman,  Visigoth,  Hun, 
Saracen,  Cretan  Pirate,  Magyar,  Slav,  Arabian 
Corsair,  Bulgarian,  and  Turk. 

War  has  leveled  Saloniki  times  without  number. 
Today,  though  holding  anciently  established  trade, 
she  is  back  where  she  must  start  afresh.  The 
heart  of  the  town  is  in  ruins  as  a  result  of  the  great 
fire,  one  of  Saloniki’s  gifts  from  the  World  War. 
Her  home  life  is  demoralized,  her  youth  in  arms, 
her  fortune  reduced. 

But  with  all  her  sorrows  and  her  misfortune, 
Saloniki  is  again  Greek,  and  that  indominable 
spirit  inherited  from  ancient  times  inspired  the 
Coveted  City  to  build  on  the  scarcely  cooled 
ruins  of  the  old  town.  The  Y  begins  with  her. 

Over  here  in  the  shadow  of  a  mosque  which  has 
served  successively  as  Greek  temple,  Roman 
temple,  synagogue,  Christian  church,  and  mosque, 
a  mixed  motley  but  happy  group  of  little  boys 
play  the  new  game  of  baseball. 

Here,  in  the  excavation  made  for  a  fine  new 
building,  on  the  site  of  ancient  structures,  little 
Greek  boys  play  soccer  with  a  combination  of 
little  Zionist  Jews  with  a  Y.  M.  C.  A.  ball. 

Over  there  on  the  waterfront  in  sight  of  a  big 
American  freighter  coming  in  the  channel,  which 
must  have  been  used  by  the  Persian  fleet,  is  a  big 
V  Soldiers’  Club.  There  the  soldier  may  get 
anything  he  likes  from  a  hot  dinner  to  ^entertain¬ 
ment,  or  a  hot  bath.  And  after  taps  the  building 


must  still  keep  open,  for  hundreds  of  boys  are 
being  entertained  in  their  big  brothers’  club.  Or 
their  big  brothers,  armed  with  military  passes, 
come  with  their  sisters  and  their  friends’  sisters 
for  a  social-literary,  French,  English,  or  German 
discussion  meeting. 

Or  yonder  in  a  former  hospital  where  wounded 
French  soldiers  were  made  well,  the  Russian 
refugees  have  a  community  center.  Here  and  there 
about  town  105  classes  in  various  subjects  are 
held  each  week  under  the  Saloniki  Y  auspices. 

Out  in  poor  demolished  Serres  the  older  orphans 
of  massacred  parents  are  taught  how  to  earn  a 
living  in  a  Y  institutional  school.  Throughout  the 
Coveted  City,  organizations  are  being  helped  by 
the  Y.  It  is  a  poor  school,  no  matter  how  ancient 
or  how  modern  its  foundation,  which  does  not 
have  Y  games.  But  the  present  program  though 
lauded  almost  daily  in  the  press  and  mentioned  in 
the  letters  of  high  officials  is  but  a  speck  on  the 
horizon  compared  to  its  future  activities.  The 
board  of  directors  promised  that. 

And  a  word  for  the  board.  The  Governor 
became  convinced  of  the  value  of  the  Y  early  in 
the  game.  He  summoned  together  a  number  of 
the  leading  men  of  all  walks  of  life.  During 
meeting  after  meeting  they  had  the  Y  and  its 
objectives  laid  down  to  them. 

When  at  last  it  seemed  that  the  group  was 
sufficiently  informed  to  decide  if  Saloniki  needed 
the  Y,  a  vote  was  taken.  Without  a  dissenting 
vote  it  was  decided  to  begin  at  once.  From  the 
group  of  “founders”  a  board  of  directors  was 
elected,  a  board  which  ably  represents  the  Coveted 
City.  These  fifteen  able  men  were  charged  by 
the  committee  of  founders  to  “manage  their  affairs 
well  and  to  bring  a  blessing  on  the  city  through 
their  efficient  management  of  the  local  Y  move¬ 
ment.” 

These  fifteen  represent  the  top  of  their  various 
departments  of  life.  Through  them,  officially, 
anything  may  be  accomplished.  They  represent 
much  of  the  initiative  of  the  Coveted  City. 
Through  them  any  proposition  may  receive  the 
impetus  needed  to  put  it  across.  They  have  the 
confidence  of  the  town.  Through  the  board  the  Y 
has  a  splendid  start  in  its  mission  to  the  people. 

Over  here  in  one  corner  of  the  office  of  the 
General  Secretary  sits  the  Governor.  He  is 


6 


arguing  an  Association  problem  with  a  representa¬ 
tive  of  industry.  Over  there  the  subject  is  being 
discussed  between  a  general  and  an  ex-private. 
The  Chief  Justice  is  discussing  the  same  proposi¬ 
tion  with  a  young  lawyer. 

Up  there  in  the  “Holy  Metropolis,”  the  See  of  the 
Orthodox  Church,  the  Metropolitan  waits  for  a 
report  of  this  meeting.  He  is  vitally  interested  and 
concerned  that  these  men  should  see  their  duty 
clearly,  for  he  is  convinced  of  the  need  for  the 
Association  and  has  asked  its  cooperation  with  his 
church.  He  has  sent  word  to  the  General  Secretary 
that  later  he  will  outline  many  things  in  which  the 
Association  may  contribute  vitally  to  the  church. 

Up  in  one  of  the  crooked  ill-paved  streets  of  the 
high  town,  where  ancient  huts  huddle  up  to  one 
another,  the  arm  of  the  Association  is  to  reach  out 
with  its  message  of  sanitation.  While  a  commu¬ 
nity  meeting  is  in  progress  in  one  of  the  coffee 
shops  borrowed  for  the  purpose,  the  little  lads 
are  going  to  learn  how  to  play. 

Down  there  in  the  low  town  a  campaign  against 
malaria  is  to  be  waged  and  there  will  be  garden 
contests  to  beautify  and  utilize  the  ugly  lots  of  the 
burnt  district.  Around  the  curve  of  the  Thermaic 
Gulf,  in  the  New  City,  the  Association  will  extend 
the  Father  and  Son  idea,  and  a  campaign  which 
will  bring  a  wider  use  of  the  schools. 

Several  benevolent  and  “improvement”  organ¬ 
izations  are  at  work  in  Saloniki.  There  is  admit¬ 
tedly  some  lost  motion  and  duplication  and  they 
have  indicated  that  Y  cooperation  will  be  accept¬ 
able. 

The  municipal  orchestra  and  chorus  contribute 
a  night  a  week  to  the  Y.  Now  the  Association  is 
able  to  be  of  service  to  them.  The  Child  Welfare 
League  and  the  patriotic  organizations  working  for 
the  families  of  the  soldiers  are  all  to  have  the 
support  of  the  local  organization. 

The  A7  is  already  working  with  the  athletic  clubs, 
but  there  is  a  large  field  of  service  with  them  as  yet 
untouched.  The  Boy  Scouts  ask  that  the  Y 
supervise  their  summer  camp.  The  various 
schools  desire  that  the  Y  should  carry  on  a  cam¬ 
paign  to  interest  parents  in  their  great  mission. 
Their  physical  culture  teachers  have  been  told  by 
the  Metropolitan  to  come  to  the  athletic  depart¬ 
ment  of  the  Y  for  games.  The  six  Masonic  lodges 
of  the  city  will  support  the  Association,  espe¬ 
cially  in  its  efforts  to  cooperate  with  the  estab¬ 
lished  institutions. 

A  picture  of  Saloniki:  Situated  along  the  horse¬ 
shoe  of  the  Thermaic  Gulf,  its  red-tiled  homes  and 
huts  crawl  upward  in  the  shadow  of  mighty  Mt. 


Olympus  until  the  top  of  a  great  hill  is  reached. 
Outwards,  the  Coveted  City  first  crawls  and  then 
grows  over  swamp  and  small  hill.  Dividing  the 
heart  of  the  city,  a  huge,  ugly  scar  places  its  blight 
upon  the  ancient  town.  It  is  the  fruit  of  the  great 
fire.  But  going  up  amid  these  ruins  are  stately 
buildings. 

Playing  or  working  about  the  spoiled  streets  are 
ragged  children,  whose  youth  has  been  arrested  or 
skipped.  In  the  coffee  shops  more  fortunate  lads 
are  wasting  their  time.  In  the  streets  walk  sober¬ 
faced  men,  Greek,  Turk,  and  Jew  alike  who  have 
never  learned  to  play. 

The  mission  of  the  Saloniki  Y  is  in  this  town.  It 
is  designed  for  these  folk.  It  will  succeed  because 
the  need  is  great  and  because  the  desire  for  it  is 
so  sincere. 

It  is  doubtful  if  there  is  another  place  in  Europe 
where  a  community  is  so  wide  open  for  the  Associ¬ 
ation  program,  and  where  the  need  is  so  great  and 
so  recognized. 

Officials  support  the  movement  with  their  time, 
thought,  and  means.  Their  political  opponents 
subscribe  their  all  to  the  movement.  The  church 
demands  the  Y.  The  department  of  education  has 
requested  Y  cooperation.  The  municipal  govern¬ 
ment  offers  material  aid  along  with  the  provincial 
government.  The  press  is  enthusiastic.  And  the 
people  are  interested — so  much  interested  that  in 
the  educational  classes  alone  last  month  two 
thousand  pupils  took  part. 

So  with  the  officials  primed,  the  people  ready, 
and  the  need  here,  all  that  remains  is  to  go  ahead. 
Although  the  various  centers  of  the  Saloniki  Y 
are  already  overcrowded,  and  although  masses 
come  to  the  different  community  points,  the  Y  has 
its  great  day  ahead  of  it,  for  now  it  is  going  out 
to  the  people. 

Although  the  interest  was  already  here,  the 
mission  composed  of  Messrs.  Davis,  Walton,  and 
Ritchie  has  greatly  widened  the  horizon  of  the 
local  Association.  Today  after  Ritchie’s  speech, 
the  town  quotes  from  him,  “Youth  is  justified  in 
shaking  its  fist  in  our  faces  if  we  do  not  give  it  a 
fair  chance.” 

The  board  of  the  Saloniki  Y.  M.  C.  A.  means  to 
see  that  its  sons  get  a  fair  chance.  They  heard  the 
challenge. and  they  have  accepted  it.  They  began 
with  an  idea  of  the  Association  as  an  improved 
series  of  soldiers’  clubs,  convinced  that  this  would 
serve  a  vital  need  of  their  youth.  Today  they  are 
convinced  that,  added  to  this,  the  Association  is 
a  movement,  mobile  and  strong,  which  may  be 


7 


directed  in  almost  any  public  service,  and  to  quote 
from  the  Governor: 

...  It  is  for  the  realization  of  these  funda¬ 
mentals  that  the  Young  Men’s  Christian  Asso¬ 
ciation  has  helped  us  to  establish  a  local  branch, 
the  christianizing  work  of  which  will  be  closely 


followed  and  assisted  by  our  civil  author! ties'^and 
strengthened  by  the  government.  But  our  com¬ 
munity  also  will  hasten  to  invest  in  this  work.  .  .  . 
I  came  to  Saloniki  to  help  buikl  a  New  City.  I 
remain  to  help  in  the  great  movement  which  is  build¬ 
ing  a  new  future  for  its  youth.” 


The  Young  Men’s  Christian  Association  in  Estonia 


HERBERT  S.  GOTT 


Senior  Secretary,  Young  Men’s  Christian  Association,  Reval,  Estonia 


The  Estonians,  one  of 
the  people  newly  liber¬ 
ated  by  the  war,  occupy 
a  few  hundred  square 
miles  of  land  at  the 
extreme  end  of  the 
Baltic  Sea,  not  far  from 
Petrograd.  They  num¬ 
ber  about  a  million  and 
a  half  and  come  from 
the  same  stem  as  the 
Finns  and  the  Hungari¬ 
ans.  By  inheritance  they  are  Lutherans,  but  a 
small  percentage  are  Greek  Orthodox. 

The  American  Young  Men’s  Christian  Associa¬ 
tion  commenced  work  among  them  in  April,  1920, 
shortly  after  they  had  obtained  their  liberty,  and 
worked  in  cooperation  with  the  A.  R.  C.  and 
A.  R.  A.  to  assist  them  in  their  exhausted  state 
after  having  passed  through  the  Great  War,  the 
German  occupation,  the  Bolshevik  occupation,  and 
the  North  Western  Army  defeat  followed  by  a 
typhus  epidemic. 

It  has  been  truly  an  extensive 
piece  of  reconstruction  work  to 
a  needy  people  at  a  critical  mo¬ 
ment  of  their  history.  A  com¬ 
plete  school  system  was  organ¬ 
ized  for  the  children  of  the 
15,000  Russian  refugees  located 
in  the  north  east  part  of  the 
country.  Playgrounds  were 
opened  and  American  games 
taught  to  thousands  of  children. 

A  wdiolesome  moving  -  picture 
service  was  set  up.  Underfed 
and  weakly  city  children  were 
sent  to  camp  for  the  summer  and 
built  up  with  good  food,  fresh  air, 
and  games.  Messages  of  cheer 


were  brought  by  the  American  secretaries  to  confer¬ 
ences  and  meetings  of  Christians,  and  hundreds 
of  spiritually  needy  individuals  were  given  strength 
to  go  on  to  better  days  by  the  service  of  love. 
Those  early  days  of  the  work  were  days  when  a 
secretary,  if  he  wished  to  meet  the  spiritual 
demands  made  on  him,  had  to  be  constantlv  in 
connection  with  the  Giver  of  all  life. 

Because  of  the  lack  of  knowledge  of  personnel 
and  the  necessity  of  using  only  men  who  would  be 
an  honor  to  the  Association  it  was  not  possible  at 
first  to  build  the  work  wholly  around  committees. 
The  many  friends  of  the  Association  and  a  care¬ 
fully  picked  local  staff,  however,  made  it  possible 
to  render  a  community  service. 

Cooperation  with  the  home  has  to  some  extent 
been  achieved.  The  Association  was  reponsible 
for  over  275  children  in  camps  in  1920. 

A  Father  and  Son  banquet  was  tried  out  with  good 
success  in  Reval.  Over  ninety  fathers  and  sons  enjoy¬ 
ed  themselves  in  this  unique  way  for  the  first  time. 

Small  parents’  meetings  with  special  speakers 
have  been  arranged  from  time  to  time. 


Y.  M.  C.  A.  School  in  Physical  Education,  Estonia 

8 


Cooperation  with  the  church.  Last  year  an 
important  activity  in  the  city  of  Reval  was  the 
coming  together  occasionally  for  fellowship  of  the 
majority  of  the  German  and  Estonian  pastors  and 
a  few  Russian  priests.  The  program  consisted  of 
general  conversation,  light  supper,  prayer,  song, 
reading  from  Fosdick’s  “Meaning  of  Service,”  and 
a  discussion  on  the  relations  of  the  church  to  the 
community,  or  modern  methods  of  work  with 
young  people.  These  meetings  could  not  have 
failed  to  be  of  value  after  so  many  years  of  war  and 
revolution.  An  outcome  of  these  gatherings  was 
a  conference  called  to  meet  Mr.  Frank  Ritchie  and 
discuss  how  the  Association  could  cooperate  with 
the  church.  The  conference  re¬ 
sulted  in  the  pastors  approving  as 
an  experiment  the  organization  of 
a  Sunday  Bible  school  by  the  As¬ 
sociation,  to  be  taken  up  by  the 
churches  if  successful.  The  school 
is  now  well  under  way  and  Sunday 
is  the  busiest  day  at  the  Associa¬ 
tion.  The  Russian  children  meet 
at  12  noon,  teachers  training  class 
2 :00,  high-school  boys  2 :30,  younger 
boys  3:30,  older  boys  5:30. 

The  Association  is  also  assisting 
in  church  club  work,  providing  the 
physical  education  for  the  members, 
and  advising  on  its  program.  In 
the  summer  a  number  of  the  club 
members  spent  a  week  at  the  As¬ 
sociation  camp.  At  Dorpat  the 
use  of  the  building  has  been  extended  frequently 
to  the  churches  for  their  activities. 

Cooperation  with  the  school.  The  Association  has 
been  especially  fortunate  in  being  able  to  cooperate 
with  the  schools.  It  is  on  remarkably  good  terms 
with  the  school  teachers,  educators,  and  depart¬ 
ment  of  education  of  the  country.  At  the  time  of 
the  visit  of  Mr.  Orr,  the  Association  educational 
specialist,  a  number  of  teachers’  conferences  were 
held  with  such  splendid  results  that  the  Minister 
of  Education  is  now  negotiating  for  the  return  of 
Mr.  Orr  in  May  for  a  more  carefully  planned  and 
extensive  set  of  conferences.  The  teachers  hung 
on  his  every  word  as  he  brought  to  them  the  best 
that  Christian  America  had  to  give  in  the  principles 
of  democracy  and,  what  was  most  needed  in 
Estonia,  the  spirit  of  Christian  love. 

In  serving  the  1,200  Russian  refugee  children 
scattered  between  Reval  and  Narva  it  was  not  a 
question  of  cooperation  with  the  school  authorities, 
for  there  were  none,  so  the  Association  organized  a 


whole  system  of  schools  itself,  using  the  existing 
high-grade  Russian  teachers.  This  work  has 
continued  on  a  diminishing  scale  since  June,  1920, 
and  will  be  dropped  altogether  by  the  Association 
June,  1922. 

About  fifty  high-school  boys  were  present  at  the 
high-school  supper  to  listen  to  Frank  Ritchie  as  he 
presented  to  them  a  great  opportunity  to  serve 
their  comrades  and  lift  the  whole  tone  of  the 
schools.  Since  his  departure  the  boys  have  been 
meeting  regularly  and  carrying  on  the  work  under 
the  leadership  of  Mr.  Paul  Buttrick.  One  of  the 
things  accomplished  has  been  the  organizing  of  the 
high-school  basket  and  volley  ball  league. 


The  moving-picture  service  of  the  Association 
is  enabling  the  schools  in  the  four  main  centers  of 
Estonia  to  supplement  their  work  with  wholesome 
educational,  travel,  and  comedy  moving-pictures. 

Cooperation  until  the  community.  The  leadership 
training  courses  last  winter  were  regularly  attended 
by  about  forty  men  and  women,  all  interested  in 
community  service.  The  purpose  of  the  course 
was  to  train  practical  Christian  workers  for  the 
various  institutions  of  the  community.  Each  one 
attending  was  required  to  be  engaged  in  some  form 
of  altruistic  service  for  others.  Two  Russian 
priests  were  among  the  most  regular  attendants 
and  the  members  of  the  course  were  requested  to 
report  on  their  work  and  to  hand  in  their  written 
answers  to  the  problems  assigned  to  them.  The 
basis  of  the  course  was  “The  Community  and  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.”  At  the  present  moment  the  majority 
of  the  people  who  took  this  course  are  occupying 
important  volunteer  and  paid  positions  in  Christ¬ 
ian  service  in  the  city. 


Y.  M.  C.  A. — Gymnasium  and  Skating  Rink,  Reval,  Estonia 


9 


Special  courses  were  put  on  for  the  raising  of  the 
morale  of  the  city  police.  A  morale  officer  was 
assigned  to  the  work  and  a  small  number  of  higher 
officers,  including  the  chiefs  of  the  city  and 
criminal  police  and  the  chief  judge,  took  special 
interest  in  the  course.  Selected  policemen  attend¬ 
ed  regularly  the  policemen’s  class  in  the  gym¬ 
nasium.  Weekly  lectures,  with  movies,  on  how  a 
policeman  can  maintain  his  personal  efficiency 
were  given  to  the  police  force. 

Playground  work  has  been  a  prominent  feature 
of  the  Association’s  contribution  to  the  com¬ 
munity.  On  our  grounds  as  demonstration  centers 
the  American  games  have  been  learned  and  have 
spread  throughout  the  country. 

The  result  of  cooperation  with  an  overgrown  and 
premature  Boy  Scout  movement  is  a  school  for 
Scout  masters,  now  being  held  at  the  Reval 
Association;  and  a  growing  healthy  movement  at 
Dorpat. 

Although  the  Association  work  in  Estonia  has 
been  mostly  among  the  refugees  and  Estonian 
citizens,  the  army  has  not  been  neglected.  Special 
physical  training  courses  for  officers  have  been 
arranged  and  regular  work  for  soldiers  carried  on 
at  the  neighboring  barracks  in  Reval  and  Dorpat. 

The  objective  in  Estonia  has  been  to  create  a 
movement  and  while  creating  it  to  keep  well 
balanced  between  community  service  and  internal 
development  activities. 

The  activities  in  the  Association  buildings  have 
been  steadily  increasing  until  now  a  long  list  of 
interests  are  centered  therein:  Orchestra,  mandolin 


club,  young  men’s  clubs,  Hi-Y  club.  Pioneers,  Boy 
Scouts,  Russian  club,  educational  classes,  com¬ 
mittee  meetings,  conferences,  English  club,  lec¬ 
tures,  talks,  physical  education,  socials,  Leaders’ 
club,  entertainments,  Bible  study,  character  build¬ 
ing,  and  Bible  school. 

From  this  intensive  work  is  springing  up  the 
movement  which  is  increasingly  expressing  itself  in 
service  to  the  community,  so  that  it  is  only  a 
matter  of  time  when  the  American  Association  will 
be  able  to  withdraw  all  its  support. 

Estonia  has  indeed  been  rich  in  opportunity  for 
service  and  few  American  Secretaries  have  ever  had 
a  better  chance  to  meet  the  moral  and  spiritual 
needs  of  a  people.  That  we  have  had  all  the 
equipment  and  financial  support  that  the  situa¬ 
tion  required  calls  forth  our  thanks  to  the  gen¬ 
erous  supporters  at  home. 

Just  how  the  permanent  work  will  develop  is 
hard  to  say  at  this  early  stage  but  certainly  the 
foundation  is  being  laid  along  strong  community 
lines.  The  service  basis  of  membership  has  been 
adopted  by  the  advisory  committee  and  the  pre¬ 
liminary  constitution  is  shaped  according  to  the 
standard  community  model.  What  is  most  im¬ 
portant,  the  men  who  are  close  to  the  movement 
are  thinking  outward  into  the  community  and  are 
beginning  to  grasp  the  idea  of  becoming  part  of 
a  spiritual  movement  flowing  out  into  the  everyday 
life  of  the  nation,  meeting  its  needs  through 
volunteer  and  paid  leadership  and  bringing  to 
people  love  and  cooperation  and  a  new  conception 
of  the  Master  and  His  Kingdom. 


( 


Europe  and  the  Young  Men’s  Christian  Association 

FRANK  RITCHIE 

Secretary,  The  International  Committee  of  Young  Men’s  Christian  Associations,  New  York 


Ten  months  in  Europe,  which  made  it  possible 
for  me  to  visit  twenty  countries,  have  convinced 
me  that  the  Association  is  facing  an  opportunity 
such  as  has  seldom  come  to  any  organization. 
These  are  not  words  carelessly  written.  Contacts 
with  governmental  officials,  military  authorities, 
educators,  and  church  leaders  bear  witness  to  the 
fact  that  the  nations  of  Central  Europe,  especially 
the  newer  nations,  are  looking  in  a  remarkable  way 
to  the  Young  Men’s  Christian  Association  for 
spiritual,  educational,  and  recreational  leadership 
for  its  boys  and  young  men.  This  is  abundantly 
confirmed  by  contacts  with  the  people. 

Many  Europeans  do  not  understand  why 
America  did  not  enter  the  League  of  Nations,  but 


in  spite  of  their  bewilderment  over  our  seemingly 
inconsistent  attitude,  America  looms  large  in  their 
thinking  and  affections,  for,  as  they  express  it, 
“America  has  fed  our  children,  cared  for  our 
suffering  ones,  helped  our  students.”  The  Red 
Cross,  American  Relief  Administration,  Student 
Relief,  and  A7.  W.  C.  A.  and  Y.  M.  C.  A.  have 
perhaps  been  among  the  biggest  ties  that  have 
helped  to  link  America  to  Europe,  for  through 
these  organizations  the  spirit  of  love  and  fellow¬ 
ship  has  been  expressed.  Differences  of  opinion 
have  been  minimized  in  the  common  task  of 
serving  humanity. 

It  is  impossible  in  a  short  article  adequately  to 
reveal  the  great  currents  that  ebb  and  flow  through 


10 


the  economic,  social,  and  religious  life  of  these 
nations.  They  are  not  only  confronted  internally 
with  great  political,  religious,  and  economic 
problems,  but  international  relationships  make 
present  conditions  in  Europe  even  more  complex 
and  the  working  out  of  the  problems  extremely 
difficult  and  delicate. 

Some  of  the  nations  are  still  at  war,  but  at 
present  the  greatest  and  most  wide-spread  conflict 
is  the  conflict  of  ideas.  While  this  is  fraught  with 
grave  dangers  it  is  full  of  hope  for  the  future,  for 
out  of  this  may  come  a  better  working  relationship 
between  the  nations. 

.  We  will  perhaps  understand  and  appreciate 
more  fully  the  significance  of  this  and  the  oppor¬ 
tunities  confronting  the  Association  by  looking 
more  closely  at  two  or  three  definite  European 
situations.  Take  for  example  the  Greek  Orthodox 
Church  with  one  hundred  forty  million  adherents, 
one  hundred  million  of  which  are  in  Russia.  I 
visited  Sofia,  Bulgaria,  a  few  days  after  a  great 
conference  Jiad  adjourned,  where  the  church  had 
courageously  faced  up  to  some  of  its  internal 
problems  as  well  as  the  great  pressing  problems  of 
the  day  in  a  most  courageous  manner.  The 
conference  hall  had  been  guarded  by  military 
police.  Bishops  and  priests  sharply  differed 
throughout  the  sessions.  A  drama  was  being  en¬ 
acted  within  the  conference  hall,  for  a  great 
reformation  was  being  initiated,  the  outcome  of 
which  would  play  no  small  part  in  the  future  of 
this  great  church.  Interviews  and  conferences 
with  the  leaders  of  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church 
and  others  bore  testimony  to  this  fact.  Some  of 
these  changes  are  indicated  in  Bulgaria,  where 
steps  are  being  taken  to  change  the  laws  of  the 
church  and  make  them  more  liberal.  It  has  been 
expressed  by  leaders  in  this  fashion — that  hereto¬ 
fore  religion  has  been  divorced  from  life;  that  the 
church  must  assume  a  new  attitude  toward  all  the 
problems  of  life  and  the  place  of  attack  should  be 
with  the  young  people  and  students.  She  should 
concern  herself  less  with  the  state  and  devote 
herself  more  to  a  program  of  practical  Christianity. 
An  indication  of  how  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church 
is  being  democratized  is  in  the  personnel  of  the 
church  council,  which  has  been  composed  entirely 
of  priests  and  is  now  being  made  up  of  both  priests 
and  laymen,  in  about  equal  number.  Final 
authority  is  now  vested  in  the  council  and  not  in  a 
small  group  of  priests  as  heretofore. 

A  plan  of  decentralization  is  being  worked  out 
by  the  council.  Women  are  also  being  recognized 
on  the  local  committees,  which  is  something  un¬ 


known  in  the  history  of  the  church.  Steps  are 
being  taken  to  shorten  the  services  and  make  them 
more  practical.  The  cause  of  these  changes  in  the 
words  of  one  of  the  church  leaders  is — the  spirit 
of  the  age  and  agitation  on  the  part  of  progressive 
laymen  and  priests.  These  facts  indicate  that 
unprecedented  changes  are  taking  place  which  in 
a  very  large  way  may  affect  the  religious  world. 

Among  the  leaders  of  the  church  are  those  who 
recognize  that  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  has  demonstrated 
a  program  of  applied  Christianity  and  they  look 
to  us  for  leadership  in  helping  them  to  apply  their 
religion  in  a  practical  way  to  everyday  life.  May 
this  not  be  an  indication  that  the  Association  has 
been  divinely  called  at  this  hour  in  the  history  of 
this  great  church? 

I  would  that  I  could  vividly  reproduce  an  epoch- 
making  conference  in  the  home  of  one  of  our 
secretaries  in  Estonia,  which  illustrated  how  the 
Association  is  actually  serving  the  church.  Around 
the  table  sat  Greek  Orthodox  priests,  Lutheran 
pastors,  and  several  Association  secretaries.  For 
two  nights  these  men  sat  in  conference  until  the 
late  hours,  discussing  how  they  could  introduce 
Sunday-school  methods  and  week-day  activities 
for  their  young  people,  something  which  the  church 
of  that  nation  had  not  conducted  and  had  made 
no  provisions  for  in  their  church  buildings. 

This  conference  resulted  in  the  working  out  of  a 
modified  Sunday-school  plan  in  which  many  of  the 
churches  united,  the  Association  providing  a  place 
of  meeting  and  cooperating  in  providing  leadership, 
methods,  and  technique,  endeavoring  to  demon¬ 
strate  the  possibilities  of  a  church  program  which 
would  meet  the  needs  of  every  phase  of  life.  The 
success  of  this  effort  may  mean  the  incorporating 
of  a  similar  program  in  the  churches  of  that  entire 
nation. 

Shortly  before  we  adjourned  one  of  the  priests 
leaned  over  and  whispered  to  me,  “A  few  years 
ago  we  would  have  been  put  into  prison  if  we  had 
been  discovered  holding  a  meeting  like  this.”  It 
was  not  difficult  to  enter  into  the  spirit  of  those 
men  who  were  for  the  first  time  feeling  the  freedom 
of  unrestricted  thinking  and  planning. 

Let  us  turn  from  the  struggle  of  a  great  church 
to  the  struggle  of  a  nation.  Poland  to  us  in 
America  is  often  a  mere  name,  a  vague  region  of 
romance  east  of  Germany  and  connected  in  some 
dim  way  with  Russia— a  land  of  revolution  and  a 
land  that  sends  us  musicians  and  Jews.  One  has 
only  to  spend  a  little  time  in  Poland,  however,  to 
begin  sympathetically  to  realize  what  these 
( Continued  on  page  14) 


II 


TWO  miles  from  the  Russian  boundary,  at 
Narva,  Estonia,  in  the  old  Ivangorod  Fortress, 
stands  the  Association  Hut,  where  for  more 
than  a  year  it  had  served  the  thousands  of  prisoners 
returning  from  Russia  to  the  homeland.  Now, 
however,  it  was  to  administer  to  the  needs  of 
another  group,  who  would  have  liked  nothing 
better  than  to  set  out  in  the  opposite  direction  for 
Russia.  The  building  which  had  served  for  the 
entertainment  of  prisoners  was  now  to  be  used  for 
a  conference  of  Russian  refugees. 

There  were  present  over  a  hundred  men,  in¬ 
cluding  almost  every  type  of  former  Russian 
citizen,  doctors,  lawyers,  teachers,  engineers, 
priests,  reporters,  and  business  men.  Most  of 
them  had  been  driven  from  the  cities  of  western 
Russia,  such  as  Petrograd,  Gatchena,  and  Pshoff. 
They  had  not  been  useless  upper  class,  such  as  one 
reads  about,  but  a  representative  group  of  Russian 
citizens,  most  of  them  prominent  in  the  life  of  their 
cities.  They  were  carefully  selected  from  among 
the  fifteen  thousand  refugees  in  Estonia.  Just 
such  a  group  as  this,  of  Americans,  might  have 
found  themselves  exiled  in  Canada  after  a  revo¬ 
lution  in  the  United  States.  For  over  a  year  the 
Association  had  been  working  among  them, 
maintaining  a  large  system  of  schools  for  their 
children,  so  they  were  familiar  with  the  Association 
at  work. 

They  came  gladly,  expectantly;  they  came 
intellectually  and  spiritually  empty,  hungering  for 
food  other  than  bread,  a  people  accepting  Christ¬ 
ianity  as  naturally  as  Americans  accept  the 
principle  of  private  ownership.  The  cause  of 
their  exile  was  social  injustice  and  disorder. 
Where  could  one  find  a  body  of  people  better  able 
to  grasp  the  message  prepared  for  them,  a  message  of 
personal  and  social  salvation  through  Jesus  Christ? 

The  conference  opened  on  Monday  morning, 
September  fifth,  with  sacred  music  followed  by  a 
devotional  period.  This  first  session  was  made  re¬ 
markable  by  a  beautiful  prayer  from  Priest 
Ostroumoff,  who,  forgetting  his  surroundings, 
pleaded  with  God  for  spiritual  help  and  for  the 
success  of  the  conference.  Sobs  could  be  heard 
throughout  the  audience,  as  many  an  over¬ 
burdened  heart  came  into  communion  with  God. 
This  priest  who  was  praying  had  lost  his  wife  and 
children  in  the  typhus  epidemic  which  followed  the 
refugees,  and  there  was  hardly  a  man  there  who 
had  not  lost  some  part,  or  all,  of  his  family. 

Between  sessions  all  took  setting-up  exercises 
and  the  younger  delegates  played  volley  ball, 
helping  to  demonstrate  the  physical  side  of  the 
Association  program. 


THE  NARVA  REF! 


In  the  afternoon  Mr.  Frank  Ritchie  took  the  floor 
and  lectured  on  the  Association  as  a  community 
force.  He  was  listened  to  intensely  as  he  ex- 
pounded  the  four  fundamental  rights  of  a  child. 
Every  child  has  a  right  to  be  well  born.  Every 
child  has  a  right  to  an  education.  Every  child  has 
a  right  to  a  play  life.  Every  child  has  a  right  to  a 
normal  expression  of  its  spiritual  life. 

Who  can  imagine  the  future  effects  of  that 
lecture  as  that  fine  group  of  Russians  sat  drinking 
in  those  great  basic  principles,  the  neglect  of  which 
had  perhaps  brought  Russia  to  her  present  state. 
Every  mind  there  must  have  reverted  to  the 
homeland  and  determined  that  some  day  these 
principles  should  be  realized  in  the  great  Russia  of 
the  future. 

In  the  evenings  the  delegates  were  entertained 
with  an  ever-changing  program  of  social  games, 
music,  and  fun,  and  by  the  aid  of  the  movies, 
other  lands  were  visited.  The  whole  program 
served  as  a  demonstration  of  the  work  of  the 
Association. 

The  two  following  days  were  filled  with  confer- 
ences  and  lectures,  such  as  sex  education,  fourfold 
program,  physical  education,  and  health.  Through- 


12 


GEE  CONFERENCE 

S.  ^OTT 


out  it  all  Ritchie  was  driving  home  the  idea  of  the 
Association,  its  program,  spirit,  and  organization. 

On  the  third  day  the  delegates  were  informed 
that  the  time  for  theory  was  ended  and  that 
now  the  conference  would  be  turned  into  a 
laboratory  for  working  out  the  policies  of  the 
Association.  A  board  of  directors  was  selected  and 
the  conference  was  divided  up  into  sub -committees 
on  home,  church,  school,  municipality,  industries, 
and  building.  All  day  long  the  committee  worked 
out  policies  for  work  in  Narva  City.  At  first  it 
looked  as  though  the  church  cooperation  com¬ 
mittee,  upon  which  sat  two  priests,  would  find  it 
impossible  to  cooperate  with  the  church,  as  they 
could  not  get  their  minds  off  the  home  and  school, 
and  could  think  of  decoration  as  the  only  thing 
the  church  needed. 

One  young  lady  remarked  that  the  church  to  the 
Russian  people  was  holy  and  they  could  not  con¬ 
ceive  of  an  interchurch  football  contest;  but  the 
priests  could  conceive  of  it  and  what  is  more,  put 
it  in  their  policy.  They  did  not  even  stop  at  a 
teachers  training  class  for  Bible  study.  One  priest 
burst  out  with  enthusiasm,  “This  is  great!  Let’s 
work  out  our  own  program  without  referring  to  the 


American  and  see  what  we  can  do  ourselves.” 

And  so  the  discussion  progressed.  If  they  were 
going  to  train  the  new  generation  to  be  four  square 
they  must  have  room  for  their  activities,  so  why 
not  build  a  church  clubhouse  for  Bible  classes, 
games,  socials,  Boy  Scout  work,  lectures,  and  of 
course  they  must  have  a  playground.  Finally,  led 
by  the  priests,  they  went  the  full  limit  of  the 
American  program. 

The  committee  on  cooperation  with  the  school 
was  equally  progressive  and  decided  to  organize  a 
Hi-Y  Club,  run  Father  and  Son  Banquets,  and 
make  a  community  center  of  the  school,  etc. 

The  committee  on  industries  certainly  saw  their 
chance  to  save  Russia  from  the  present  chaos, 
judging  by  the  program  they  mapped  out. 

At  the  board  of  directors’  meeting  the  following 
morning  the  chairmen  of  the  sub-committees  made 
their  reports  briefly  with  such  dead  earnestness 
that  the  chairman  found  it  hard  to  realize  that  it 
was  a  drama  instead  of  real  life. 

The  chairman  on  cooperation  with  the  municip¬ 
ality  got  himself  into  hot  water  by  recommending 
that  the  city  should  rebuild  the  fortress  and  make 
it  more  presentable.  The  representative  of  the 
International  Red  Cross  took  good-humored  of¬ 
fence  at  this,  claiming  that  the  fortress  had 
proved  its  usefulness  in  taking  care  of  thousands 
of  prisoners,  even  if  it  did  not  measure  up  to 
certain  standards  of  beauty.  Mr.  Wright  promptly 
saved  the  situation  by  showing  that  it  was  a 
little  too  much  to  expect  one  lonely  Red  Cross  cow 
to  eat  up  all  the  weeds  in  time  for  the  conference. 

I  have  never  seen  a  more  effective  means  of 
educating  a  body  of  men.  After  the  lecture  there 
had  been  many  who  did  not  grasp  the  way  the 
Association  reached  out  into  the  community 
through  its  system  of  volunteer  committees, 
touching  many  phases  of  life  and  stimulating  new 
life  and  energy.  However,  after  the  men  had  sat 
in  these  committees  themselves  and  mapped  out 
the  policies  of  their  own  Association,  the  whole 
idea  became  much  clearer.  The  result  was  an 
enthusiasm  far  surpassing  anything  that  could 
have  been  created  by  mere  lecturing.  After  such 
an  experience  the  social  message  of  Christianity 
began  to  have  real  meaning. 

The  open  forum  at  the  end  of  the  annual  meeting 
of  the  board  was  attended  with  great  interest  and 
questions  came  rapidly.  Could  the  Russians 
organize  a  temporary  Association  at  Narva? 
When  was  the  Association  going  into  Russia? 
Would  the  Association  continue  to  stand  by  the 
Russians  in  the  days  of  their  exile? 

( Continued  on  page  23) 


13 


Europe  and  the  Young  Men’s  Christian  Association 

(' Continued  from  page  11) 


people  have  passed  through  and  to  feel  their  ideals 
and  aspirations;  then  instead  of  a  vague  and  in¬ 
tangible  country  there  looms  up  before  you  a  great 
struggling  nation. 

It  was  back  in  1795  that  Poland  lost  her  identity 
as  a  country  and  was  divided  between  Germany, 
Austria,  and  Russia.  Just  before  the  Great  War 
this  division  still  existed.  The  Poles  were  not 
allowed  to  speak  their  own  language  and  yet 
through  these  many  years  they  have  retained  their 
native  tongue,  because  it  has  been  persistently 
taught  by  the  mothers  to  the  children. 

Besides  this  geographic  division,  “Poland  has 
within  itself  five  distinct  classes :  the  peasant  class, 
who  are  individualists  and  loyal  Catholics;  the 
laboring  class,  who  are  socialists  and  have  a  strong 
tendency  toward  Communism;  however,  Polish 
Socialism  is  generally  national,  not  international. 
The  business  men,  who  are  again  divided,  as 
merchants  and  manufacturers.  The  merchants  are 
almost  always  Jews,  the  manufacturers  generally 
Germans.  The  nobility,  who  are  the  landowners 
and  come  from  the  old  Polish  stock,  conservative, 
and  generally  Catholic.  The  intellectuals,  chiefly 
occupied  with  literature,  art,  and  politics.” 

When  the  war  broke  out,  divided  Poland  was 
lined  up  against  itself.  It  was  not  uncommon  for 
one  member  of  the  family  who  had  been  living  in 
Russian  Poland  to  fight  another  member  living  in 
German  Poland.  Since  the  war  their  country  has 
been  reestablished.  The  Poles  are  idealists  and 
their  sufferings  and  suppression  of  past  years  have 
set  them  on  fire  with  a  new  zeal  for  making  of 
themselves  a  great  nation. 

In  this  country  with  all  of  its  background  of 
history  and  with  its  future  in  the  making,  I  spent 
a  month.  One  of  the  most  heart-breaking  trips 
during  that  time  was  out  to  the  Russian  border  to 
visit  the  refugees’  camp  in  Baranowicze.  Formerly 
this  was  a  prisoner-of-war  camp,  but  it  has  now 
been  practically  disbanded  for  this  purpose  and 
today  there  are  crowding  in  over  the  border 
thousands  of  Poles  who  are  returning  from  Russia. 
When  I  visited  this  particular  center  there  were 
about  20,000  refugees  in  the  camp.  They  were 
being  cared  for  in  wooden  barracks,  in  old  military 
horse  stables,  in  huts  of  pine  boughs,  and  some 
lived  without  any  shelter  at  all.  You  could  see 
them  in  small  groups  clustered  about  little  fires 


which  they  had  built  from  stolen  wood.  This  great 
mass  of  humanity  was  crowded  into  an  area  less 
than  a  mile  square. 

Refugees  were  coming  from  Russia  at  the  rate 
of  about  two  thousand  a  day.  There  were  about 
six  thousand  mothers  in  the  camp,  about  seven 
thousand  boys  and  girls  under  seventeen  years  of 
age,  and  three  thousand  unmarried  men.  About 
seven  or  eight  deaths  were  occurring  daily  and 
about  four  or  five  births.  These  people  were 
living  in  Poland  when  the  Great  War  broke  out 
and  now  they  are  returning.  A  magnificent  piece 
of  cooperative  work  was  being  carried  on  for  these 
people  by  the  Red  Cross,  the  American  Relief 
Administration,  and  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  The  first 
two  organizations  were  providing  clothing  and 
food  and  medical  help,  the  Association  the 
recreational,  moral,  and  health-building  program. 

The  Association  program  that  has  been  con¬ 
ducted  for  the  enlisted  men  has  so  captured  the 
imagination  of  the  Polish  people  that  they  are 
asking  for  this  work  in  their  great  cities.  My 
special  mission  to  Poland  was  to  help  establish 
the  civilian  work.  This  made  it  necessary  for 
me  to  visit  Warsaw,  which  is  now  the  capi¬ 
tal;  Lodz,  the  great  industrial  city,  which  is  the 
headquarters  of  the  textile  industry  of  Poland; 
Krakow,  the  great  educational  center;  and 
Przemysl,  which  became  so  well  know  n  during  the 
war  because  of  the  wTay  the  Austrians  held  out 
against  the  long  attack  of  the  Russians. 

In  all  of  these  centers  conferences  were  held 
with  newly  appointed  boards  of  directors  and 
representative  groups  of  citizens,  in  addition  to 
special  public  gatherings  for  the  presentation  and 
discussion  of  Association  work.  These  groups 
were  eager  for  Association  ideals  and  methods. 

One  gets  some  idea  of  how  the  leaders  of  Poland 
are  rallying  to  the  Association  program  when  at 
Krakow  such  men  as  the  following  attended  a 
conference  to  think  through  the  application  of  our 
American  methods  to  Poland : 

General  Stanislaw  Szeptucki,  count  and  dis¬ 
tinguished  soldier. 

General  Alexander  Osinski,  commander  of  the 
district. 

General  Zdsislaw  Kostecki,  commander  of  the 
garrison. 


14 


Dr.  Rolle,  first  alderman  of  Krakow,  member  of 
National  Council  of  Y.  M.  C.  A’s. 

Dr.  Nomidlowski,  chief  of  the  health  department 
of  the  district. 

Professor  Nowak,  Ph.  D.,  president  of  the  Univ¬ 
ersity,  who  acted  as  master  of  ceremonies. 

Professor  Estreicher,  former  president  of  the 
University;  member  of  National  Council  of  Y.  M. 
C.  A.’s. 

Professor  Heinrich,  professor  of  psychology  in 
the  University. 

Professor  Chrzanowski,  professor  of  literature  in 
the  University. 

Professor  Piltz,  head  of  largest  nerve  clinic  and 
hospital  in  the  city. 

Professor  Rubczynski,  professor  of  ethics  in  the 
University. 

Dr.  Wessely,  member  of  City  Council,  expert  in 
social  charities. 

Dr.  Amino wicz,  City  Councillor,  associate  of  Dr. 
Wessely. 

Professor  Hoborski,  principal  of  Academy  of 
Mines,  professor  of  mathamatics  at  the  University. 

Major  Broniewski,  active  officer  in  the  Army. 

Professor  St.  Kot,  professor  of  education  in  the 
University. 

Dr.  Krokiewicz,  professor  in  one  of  city  high 
schools. 

Professor  Gorka,  head  of  department  in  city 
technical  school. 

Stanislaw  Ostrowski,  City  Councillor,  govern¬ 
ment  expert  on  all  matters  of  vocational  guidance. 

Count  Puslawski,  captain  in  cavalry,  interpreter 
for  Dr.  Mott  and  other  Y.  M.  C.  A.  speakers  and 
who  acted  as  my  interpreter. 

Profesor  Jakubiec,  professor  of  high  school, 
chairman  of  commission  for  new  studies  curric¬ 
ulum. 

Lt.  Lubaczewski,  head  of  educational  work  in 
the  garrison. 

These  names  illustrate  the  type  of  men  the 
Association  is  enlisting  and  the  influence  it  has  with 
the  governmental  officials  and  other  leaders. 

The  attitude  of  the  leaders  of  Poland  and  the 
opportunities  of  the  Association  are  summed  up  by 
one  of  the  leading  Polish  educators:  “We  are  re¬ 
building  our  nation.  Our  homes,  our  educational 
system,  our  economic  and  social  life,  are  in  the 
making.  You  come  not  to  Americanize  Poland 
but  to  bring  to  us  the  great  Christian  principles  of 
the  American  Young  Men’s  Christian  Association. 


You  give  us  of  its  leadership,  methods,  technique, 
so  that  we  may  for  ourselves  incorporate  these 
into  the  life  of  our  nation  and  work  out  a  Polish 
Y.  M.  C.  A.,  which  will  do  for  our  young  men  what 
the  American  Association  has  done  for  the  young 
men  of  America.  We  welcome  you.  Our  doors  are 
wide  open.”  Such  an  opportunity  places  upon  our 
American  movement  the  very  greatest  responsi¬ 
bility. 

A  similiar  opportunity  is  confronting  the  Associ¬ 
ation  in  Czechoslovakia,  that  new  little  republic 
situated  in  the  very  heart  of  Europe.  Eighteen  of 
its  cities  are  establishing  the  Association  for  work 
among  the  civilians.  The  Association  is  destined 
to  play  a  large  part  in  the  life  of  this  new  nation. 
It  is  a  country  that  plays  with  your  imagination, 
develops  your  strategy,  and  lures  you  on  with  its 
possibilities. 

Another  similiar  illustration  was  in  Bulgaria 
when  the  Association  secretaries  of  that  country 
met '  in  Sofia  to  discuss  modern  Association 
methods.  The  keenness  on  the  part  of  the  young 
men  of  this  countrv  for  American  methods  and 

nJ 

ideals  was  constantly  manifested  by  persistent 
appeals  for  a  physical  program  and  leadership  in 
their  athletics.  It  took  concrete  form  when  a 
passionate  appeal  was  made  for  leadership,  at  one 
of  the  sessions,  and  later  when  three  hundred  men, 
representing  the  three  thousand  members  of  the 
athletic  club  of  Sofia,  assembled  with  a  band  at 
the  railroad  station,  to  thank  the  representative  of 
the  Association  movement  for  the  contribution 
that  was  made  at  the  conference  and  to  formally 
request  that  leadership  be  made  possible  to  direct 
their  athletics  and  to  safeguard  the  standards  and 
ideals  in  athletics  that  they  were  ambitious  to 
retain.  A  similiar  demonstration  was  repeated 
later  in  the  day  when  the  Senior  Secretary  of 
Europe  and  his  associates  left  the  city.  These  are 
simply  illustrative  of  the  way  these  countries  are 
reaching  out  and  seeking  cooperation  of  the 
American  Y.  M.  C.  A.  at  a  time  when  they  are 
readjusting  themselves  to  new  conditions  and 
reestablishing  national  foundations.  Similiar 
graphic  pictures  could  be  painted  of  many  of  the 
other  nations. 

The  World  War  has  created  a  condition  in 
Europe  which  has  brought  to  the  Association  one 
of  its  greatest  opportunities.  May  we  keep  con¬ 
stantly  before  us  the  world  vision  and  increasingly 
become  world  citizens  in  order  that  those  things 
that  we  have  begun  in  stricken  Europe  may  be 
greatly  strengthened  and  expanded  in  the  days 
that  are  ahead. 


15 


The  Greater  Community  Idea  of  the  Cleveland  Association 


ROBERT  E.  LEWIS 


General  Secretary,  Young  Men’s  Christian  Association,  Cleveland,  Ohio 


In  order  to  emphasize 
the  community  nature 
of  the  Cleveland  Young 
Men’s  Christian  Asso¬ 
ciation  we  will  elimin¬ 
ate  in  this  statement 
those  activities,  ser¬ 
vices,  and  lines  of  pat¬ 
ronage  which  are  usually 
relied  upon  in  making 
up  statistical  tables  or 
telling  what  the  Y.  M. 
C.  A.  is.  In  other  words,  we  will  not  discuss  the 
great  family  of  25,420  members  of  the  Association, 
nor  the  hundreds  of  clubs,  societies,  teams,  and 
classes  to  which  they  belong,  within  the  four 
walls  of  the  Association  buildings.  We  will  make 
no  reference  to  the  1,060  weekly  meetings  and 
class  sessions  which  take  place  within  these  build¬ 
ings. 

But  the  Cleveland  Association  has  a  relationship 
to  the  Greater  Community  which  may  be  measured 
in  an  entirely  different  way.  The  double-page  map 
of  Cleveland  which  appears  on  the  following  pages 
makes  record  only  of  the  activities  exterior  to  the 
building.  Each  radial  point  is  a  branch  head¬ 
quarters.  There  are  fourteen  branches  in  all,  but 
the  cartographer  reached  the  limit  of  his  science 
when  he  attempted  to  put  on  the  map  symbols  to 
indicate  the  organized  relations  radiating  from 
headquarters.  There  were  twenty-eight  symbols 
to  be  added  which  could  not  be  placed  at  all  upon 
the  map.  Furthermore,  around  the  General 
Headquarters  there  should  also  be  placed  symbols 
to  indicate  the  Central  Branch,  the  Downtown 
Boys’  Branch,  and  the  Educational  Branch,  but 
these  are  entirely  eliminated  from  the  map  and 
their  activities  are  joined  in  the  corona  which 
radiates  from  the  General  Headquarters. 

The  Cleveland  Association  maintains  organized 
relations  to  forty-six  public  institutes,  nineteen 
playgrounds,  seventy-five  industrial  establish¬ 
ments,  seventy-six  neighborhood  groups,  163 
school  groups,  175  church  groups,  and  groups  in 
forty-seven  miscellaneous  organizations.  The 
grand  total  of  groups  and  societies  to  which  in  its 
Greater  Community  work  the  Cleveland  Associa¬ 
tion  maintains  organized  relations  is  601. 


A  study  of  the  small  diagram  upon  the  map  will 
give  a  pictorial  view  of  this  summary.  Wherever 
you  note  a  “C”  on  the  map  it  stands  for  church, 
“S”  for  school,  “N”  for  neighborhood  groups,  “P” 
for  public  institutions,  “I”  for  industries,  “PG” 
for  playgrounds,  “00”  for  other  organizations,  a 
triangle  a  branch  with  building,  a  circle  a  branch 
without  a  building. 

The  Association’s  Internal  Organization  May  Be 

Briefly  Described  as  Follows  : 

There  is  a  General  Headquarters  and  fourteen 
branches;  of  these  six  are  of  the  distinctively 
community  type  and  are  primarily  for  boys.  Of 
these  six  community  boys’  branches  one  operates  a 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  building  and  five  operate  from  an 
office  headquarters  only.  The  non-equipment 
branches  are  all  new;  not  one  of  them  is  more  than 
two  years  old,  but  the  map  will  show  what  an 
extended  service  relationship  is  maintained  by 
these  new  branches  in  the  districts  known  as 
Lakewood,  Brooklyn,  Northeast,  East  Cleveland, 
and  Downtown  Boys’. 

In  addition  to  playgrounds  in  the  city,  the 
Association  conducts  a  Camp  in  the  country  and 
three  all-day  Camps,  known  as  Ys-in-the-Woods, 
immediately  to  the  west,  the  south,  and  the  east 
of  Cleveland. 

Membership  privileges  are  not  required  for  the 
use  of  the  Ys-in-the-Woods.  These  recreation 
spots  are  always  under  supervision  during  the  long, 
hot-weather  season.  Any  boy  is  welcome.  All  of 
them  have  swimming  and  recreational  facilities. 

The  community  branches  of  the  Cleveland 
Association  have  two  forms  of  membership; 
Service  members  who  take  a  Declaration  of 
Purpose  and  Activities  members.  But  membership 
for  the  most  part  is  through  clubs  and  groups 
rather  than  as  individuals.  Membership  dues  of 
clubs  and  groups  are  graded  from  ten  cents  to 
fifty  cents  per  month. 

Every  symbol  upon  the  map  represents  an  or¬ 
ganized  group.  No  group  appears  upon  the  map 
unless  the  Association  has  had  at  least  three  con¬ 
tinuous  contacts  with  the  group  and  in  many  cases 
the  contacts  continue  over  the  whole  season.  For 
example,  the  Association  has  organized  the  winter 
sport  of  basketball  for  seventy-five  or  more 
churches;  one  of  the  playing  requirements  being 


1 7 


gWflo*ivr<  BR/mci 


that  every  player  must  produce  a  church  certificate 
showing  that  he  is  in  attendance  upon  the  Bible 
school,  otherwise  he  becomes  ineligible.  This  has 
meant  an  immense  stimulus  of  church  attendance 
of  youngsters  between  sixteen  and  nineteen  years 
of  age.  These  are  the  years  when  boys  usually 
try  to  escape  from  the  Bible  school. 

The  Association’s  community  work  has  over¬ 
flowed  into  thirteen  public  school  buildings  which 
have  been  loaned  by  the  authorities  to  the  Associa¬ 
tion  for  evening  classes. 

The  Greater  Community  industrial  contacts  are 
vital.  A  new  type  of  industrial  relationship  has 
been  worked  out  in  Cleveland  during  the  past 
three  or  four  years.  This  Association  does  not 
specialize  upon  gymnastics  and  mass  singing  for 
industrial  workers,  but  has  been  concentrating  its 
attention  upon  industrial  problems,  the  organiza¬ 
tion  of  industrial  relationships;  in  fact  all  the 
questions  involved  in  the  zone  of  disagreement. 
Its  representatives  have  been  in  contact,  in  many 
cases  vital  and  continuous  contact,  with  labor 
unions,  employers’  groups,  factory  bosses,  indiv¬ 
idual  plants,  unions;  at  least  seventy -five  such 
industrial  groups  have  been  in  contact  with  the 
Association  on  the  principle  of  attempting  to  find 
out  what  is  right;  what  the  Golden  Rule  practi¬ 
cally  applied  would  mean  to  the  solving  of  indus¬ 
trial  problems. 

One  of  the  prolific  efforts  for  good  on  the  part  of 
the  Cleveland  Association  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  is 
a  training  center  for  young  secretaries.  Eighty- 
seven  men  are  now7  in  the  Association  secretaryship 
who  have  been  training  in  Cleveland;  seventeen 
are  in  China,  eleven  are  in  the  Russian  service;  in 
fact  they  have  been  appointed  to  positions  of 
greatest  responsibility  in  the  world  field. 

Another  unusual  community  service  not  indi¬ 
cated  at  all  upon  the  map  is  the  Association’s 
relation  to  the  Cleveland  Community  Fund.  Men 
trained  in  its  service  are  prominent  in  this  organi¬ 
zation,  which  is  supported  by  over  200,000  sub¬ 


scribers  in  Cleveland,  and  which  raises  from  three 
to  four  millions  of  dollars  each  year  for  the  main¬ 
tenance  of  the  private  charitable  institutions;  to 
provide  Cleveland’s  portion  of  national  support  of 
accredited  societies,  and  also  to  meet  Cleveland’s 
quota  of  European  and  foreign  relief.  The 
president  of  the  Community  Chest,  the  chairman 
of  the  Campaign  Committee,  the  secretary  of  the 
Publicity  Division  of  the  Sixty  Best  Sellers 
section,  the  chairman  of  the  Assignment  Com¬ 
mittee,  many  of  the  active  captains  and  team 
members,  call  upon  the  Association  to  provide  one 
hundred  and  more  of  its  active  wTorkers  for  leader¬ 
ship  in  connection  with  the  Community  Chest. 
This  leadership  is  not  for  a  few  days,  but  in  many 
cases  extends  over  weeks  and  months  of  time. 

No  more  resourceful  work  is  represented  on  the 
Greater  Community  map  than  that  of  the  Hi-Y 
Clubs.  These  are  organized  in  eighteen  high 
schools.  The  organization  meets  weekly.  It  is 
made  up  of  the  ablest  boys  in  each  school  who  are 
willing  to  stand  for  clean  sport,  clean  speech,  and 
clean  habits  and  the  Christian  life.  The  Hi-Y 
Clubs  bring  together  in  each  school  the  leading 
scholars,  athletes,  and  out-standing  boys,  and  are 
by  all  means  the  most  influential  club  in  each 
school.  As  the  Hi-Y  clubs  are  composed  only  of 
junior  and  senior  boys,  sophomore  clubs  are  organ¬ 
ized  in  the  high  schools  and  in  the  eighth  grade  of 
the  grammar  schools  as  “Red  Triangle”  clubs. 

Amongst  the  city-wide  community  campaigns 
must  be  named  the  swimming  campaign  for 
grammar-school  boys,  who  are  sent  in  relays  to  the 
Association  branches  to  be  taught  swimming. 

Even  more  significant  is  the  “Find  Yourself” 
campaign,  in  which  three  hundred  laymen  in  one 
week’s  time  will  interview  several  thousand  high- 
school  boys  in  regard  to  their  vocational  choices. 
The  influence  of  such  a  concerted  effort  is  very 
great. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  and  certainly  the  most 
recent  development  in  the  Greater  Community 


Oscar  J.  Fox  Capt.  C.  E.  Frye  W.  J.  Buttriss  John  W.  Rupp  L.  T.  Goodman  E.  V.  Rasmussen 

Lakewood  Br.  Cedar  Ave.  Br.  Brooklyn  Br.  Northeast  Br.  ,  Downtown  Br.  East  Cleveland  Br. 

l8 


work  of  the  Cleveland  Association  is  in  the  opening 
of  the  Cedar  Avenue  Boys’  Branch  building,  which 
is  operating  on  the  community  basis  for  both 
colored  and  white  boys.  It  is  located  on  the  edge 
of  the  best  colored  district  and  on  the  edge  of  the 
best  old  residence  district  of  Cleveland.  Over 
1,100  boys,  a  little  over  half  of  them  colored, 
with  many  Jewish  and  Catholic  boys,  throng  this 
community  center.  One  floor  of  the  building  is  for 
youth  and  men  over  eighteen  years  of  age  and  is 
equally  popular.  This  appears  to  be  the  first 
serious  effort  to  do  work  for  both  the  colored  and 
the  white  race  of  adolescent  ages  in  the  same 
branch.  It  is  extremely  popular  with  the  colored 
people,  who  find  in  it  no  race  line,  no  symbol  of 
“Jim  Crowism.”  The  staff  is  both  white  and 
colored,  the  managing  committee  and  the  member¬ 
ship  are  of  both  races.  It  is  a  boys’  work  and 
nothing  but  the  most  fortunate  experiences  have 
so  far  attended  its  inauguration.  Membership  is 
by  groups  and  clubs,  rather  than  as  individuals. 
The  activities  have  already  overflowed  in  the 
public  school  buildings. 

The  Greater  Community  work  of  the  Young 
Men’s  Christian  Association  will  sometime  become 
its  primary  wTork. 

Where  Associations  do  not  have  buildings  the 
community  service  may  be  carried  on  with  equal 


facility.  In  fact,  many  secretaries  feel  it  is  a 
handicap  to  be  responsible  for  the  operation  of  a 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  building.  These  convictions  are  so 
strong  upon  us  that  the  Downtown  Boys’  Branch 
has  voluntarily  surrendered  its  club  rooms  in  the 
Central  Men’s  building.  It  retains  only  an  office 
from  which  it  operates  throughout  the  community, 
using  assigned  hours  in  the  men’s  gymnasium  and 
swimming  pool  and  auditorium,  just  as  it  does 
assigned  periods  in  school  buildings. 

We  do  not  advocate  the  elimination  of  buildings, 
but  we  do  advocate  the  elimination  of  the  present 
emphasis,  which  is  an  emphasis  upon  institutional 
service  and  the  selling  of  privileges.  Christ’s 
principle  that  an  individual  who  saves  his  life 
shall  lose  it,  is  applicable  to  institutions.  If  the 
Young  Men’s  Christian  Association  really  en¬ 
deavors  to  lose  itself  in  the  community  it  will  find 
itself.  The  term  “extension  work”  does  not  in  any 
way  describe  what  we  mean.  It  is  an  entire 
misnomer  for  the  Greater  Community  service.  In 
the  training  of  secretaries,  in  the  conduct  of 
summer  schools,  in  the  administration  of  Associa¬ 
tion  Colleges,  in  planting  Associations  in  cities,  the 
Association  should  be  made  to  cooperate  with  the 
fundamental  agencies  rather  than  to  set  itself  up 
as  a  new  fundamental  agency  of  its  own.  Buildings 
should  be  used  as  service  centers. 


THE  COMMUNITY  POINT  OF  VIEW 

There  has  been  an  insistent  demand  for  a  special  institute  this  summer  for  secretaries 
who  are  related  to  Associations  operating  on  the  Community  basis.  Because  of  this  demand 
steps  are  being  taken  to  hold  such  an  institute  at  Lake  Geneva  probably  the  last  ten  days 
of  July.  The  following  committee  has  been  appointed: 

Dr.  J.  B.  Modesitt,  Milwaukee,  Chairman ;  R.  V.  Boggess,  Milwaukee;  K.  A.  Shumaker, 
Chicago;  A.  F.  Holmer,  Minneapolis;  O.  J.  Fox,  Cleveland;  E.  F.  Denison,  International 
Committee,  Chicago;  Dr.  A.  W.  Slaten,  Chicago  Association  College;  E.  W.  Brandenburg, 
Chicago;  J.  A.  Wilson,  Massillon,  Ohio;  J.  A.  Urice,  International  Committee,  New  York; 
Wm.  P.  Harms,  Detroit;  L.  E.  Buell,  Detroit. 

The  rapid  development  of  the  Community  idea  in  America,  as  well  as  its  recent  intro¬ 
duction  in  other  nations  of  the  world,  makes  it  imperative  that  we  avail  ourselves  of  every 
opportunity  to  exchange  methods  and  program  and  do  constructive  thinking  as  to  phil¬ 
osophy  and  technique,  under  the  very  best  leadership. 

The  Committee  is  planning  an  institute  that  should  meet  a  long-felt  need.  The  exact 
date  of  the  institute,  names  of  faculty  members,  and  the  nature  of  the  courses  will  be  an¬ 
nounced  shortly.  All  communications  should  be  addressed  to  Dr.  J.  B.  Modesitt  of 
Milwaukee. 


19 


A  Suggestive  Method  of  Developing  an  Intelligent, 

Working  Membership 


( 


The  question  of  lifting  membership  out  of  the  realm  of  the  purchase  of  privileges  has 
for  some  time  been  under  serious  discussion.  Various  methods  have  been  tried  out  which 
would  magnify  service  in  connection  with  membership,  thus  making  membership  a  group 
of  men  and  boys  standing  for  the  ideals  of  the  Association  and  united  in  a  common  task 
of  service  in  the  community. 

The  following  steps  to  membership  are  the  result  of  group  thinking  on  the  part  of  a 
number  of  Association  men,  both  in  America  and  Europe,  and  they  are  presented  here 
as  a  possible  basis  for  membership  to  further  stimulate  thinking  along  the  lines  of  member¬ 
ship  divorced  from  the  selling  of  privileges. 


1.  Membership  application  to  be  filled  out  by 
applicant. 

2.  Personal  interview  with  prospective  mem¬ 
bers,  by  a  member  of  the  Membership 
Committee  or  Secretary. 

Points  to  be  covered  in  interview  with  'prospective 
member : 

a.  Check  over  with  him  the  application 
blank  in  order  that  he  may  fully  understand 
the  opportunities  for  self-development  and 
service  that  he  receives  on  becoming  a 
member  of  the  Association. 

b.  Give  applicant  some  idea  of  the  world¬ 
wide  organization  as  well  as  the  national, 
state,  and  local  aspects  of  it. 

c.  Share  fully  with  him  the  ideals  and 
program  of  the  local  Association  for  the 
betterment  of  the  boys  and  young  men  of  the 
community. 

d.  The  “Declaration  of  Purpose”  (see  page 
21),  which  applicant  will  sign  when  formally 
received  into  membership,  should  be  ex¬ 
plained. 

e.  Make  clear  what  is  involved  in  such  a 
program  in  the  way  of  voluntary  service  and 
financial  responsibility  on  his  part  in  order 
to  make  effective  the  local,  state,  national, 
and  world-wide  work. 

f .  Give  him  a  financial  pledge  card  on  which 
to  indicate  a  voluntary  gift.  This  card 
should  not  be  filled  out  at  the  time,  but 
should  be  taken  home  and  thought  over, 
filled  in,  and  brought  to  the  Association 
later.  If  a  schoolboy,  he  should  be  expected 
to  earn  his  gift  rather  than  to  secure  it  from 
his  parents  or  others.  Membership  should 
not  be  dependent  upon  the  gift. 


3.  After  the  interview,  applicant’s  name  should 
be  submitted  to  the  Membership  Committee 
for  investigation.  The  Membership  Com¬ 
mittee  should  then  present  the  name  to  be 
voted  upon  at  the  next  regular  meeting  6f 
the  members. 

4.  All  members  to  be  received  should  be  noti¬ 
fied  to  be  present  at  a  stated  time  at  one  of 
the  regular  meetings  of  the  members  of  the 
Association.  A  short  talk  might  be  given 
on  such  topics  as: 

a.  Personal  responsibilities  of  members. 

b.  Privilege  of  responsibilities. 

Membership  cards  might  be  presented  by  the 
president.  The  new  member  should  then 
sign,  in  the  presence  of  the  group,  the 
Declaration  of  Purpose  on  the  back  of  the 
Membership  Card. 

5.  Every  member,  with  his  Membership  Card 
should  receive  a  small  pamphlet  containing 
the  following  information: 

a.  Declaration  of  Purpose  and  Comments. 

b.  Facts  re  the  local  Association  work, 
its  objectives,  etc. 

c.  Facts  re  the  state  and  national  work. 

d.  Facts  re  the  world  program. 

e.  Financial  statement  re  the  local,  state, 
national,  and  world  program. 

f.  The  constitution  and  by-laws  of  the 
local  Association. 

g.  Information  about  privileges  and  cost 
of  same. 


20 


Suggestive  Comments  on  Declaration  of  Purpose, 
for  Members’  Pamphlet,  explaining  5-a. 

1.  “In  My  Inward  Life” — You  have  declared 
your  leadership  springs  from  a  genuine  inner  char¬ 
acter;  certainly  this  movement  needs  that  kind  of 
leadership.  No  other  is  trustworthy  or  enduring. 

2.  “In  My  Outward  Life” — You  hereby  declare 
that  your  leadership  will  be  a  part  of  and  supported 
by  a  consistent  outward  life  that  will  make  you 
trusted  by  men  and  boys.  This,  too,  will  enable 
the  Association  leaders  to  feel  safe  in  putting  into 
your  hands  increasingly  greater  responsibilities 
in  your  community. 

3.  “In  Cooperative  Efforts” — You  have  here 
declared  that  your  leadership  will  be  so  broad, 
generous,  and  considerate  as  to  enable  you  to 
work  together  for  the  common  good  with  other 
people  whose  hopes  and  aims  are  like  yours  and 
yet  whose  expressions  and  methods  may  be 
different. 

4.  “To  Make  Effective” — You  have  declared 
that  your  leadership  will  be  based  upon  practical 


circumstances  and  not  upon  some  fine-spun  theory, 
thus  your  work  will  become  a  reality  in  the 
Association  program. 

5.  “In  the  Life  of  the  Community” — You 
declared  that  your  leadership,  like  that  of  our 
great  Leader  and  Master,  takes  into  account 
every  element  in  the  field  of  our  effort.  It  is 
therefore  for  the  whole  community.  Your  leader¬ 
ship  then  because  of  its  genuineness,  its  generosity 
and  sanity,  will  be  taken  into  the  very  life  of  the 
men  and  boys  of  your  towns. 

C.  “Standard  of  Character” — You  have  de¬ 
clared  that  your  leadership  ever  recognizes  one 
standard  of  character  and  that  by  this  standard 
you  will  form  and  reform  your  policy  and  model 
your  leadership. 

7.  “In  the  Life  and  Teachings  of  Christ” — 
You  have  declared  that  your  leadership  shall  find 
strength  and  growth  not  only  by  exercise  and  ser¬ 
vice,  but  also  in  company  with  and  under  the 
guidance  of  the  Life  and  Teachings  of  our  Leader, 
Jesus,  as  they  appear  in  the  great  record  we  call 
the  New  Testament. 


MEMBERSHIP  CARD 

YOUNG  MEN’S  CHRISTIAN  ASSOCIATION 


President  Secretary 

No . 

(THIS  TICKET  IS  NOT  TRANSFERABLE  TO  ANOTHER  PERSON.) 


DECLARATION  OF  PURPOSE: 

I  hereby  declare  that  as  a  Member  of  the 
Young  Men’s  Christian  Association  I  will 
seek  in  my  inward  life  and  outward  conduct,  and 
through  cooperative  efforts  with  others,  to  make 
effective  in  the  life  of  the  community  the  stand¬ 
ards  of  character  set  forth  in  the  life  and  teach¬ 
ings  of  Jesus  Christ. 


Signature 

(MEMBERS  OVER  18  YEARS  ENTITLED  TO  VOTE  AND  HOLD  OFFICE.) 


A  suggestion  for  front  and  back  of  Membership  Card 


21 


This  picture  shows  some  of  the  equipment  used  and  some  of  the  participants 
Upper  Left — i  of  the  14  Boys’  Football  teams.  Upper  Right —  1  of  the  36  Men’s  Athletic  Teams.  Upper  Center —  5 
schools  in  which  activities  were  conducted  by  various  community  organizations.  Lower  Upper — 7  Cooperating 
Churches.  Above  Center — 5  Factories  in  which  a  full  Industrial  Program  has  been  successfully  promoted.  Right 
of  Center — C.  C.  T.  P.  Council.  Left  of  Center — Employed  Boys’  Cabinet.  Directly  Below  Center — 7  pictures — - 
Home  groups  and  Stunt  days.  Left — Community  Gym.  Right — Swimming  pool  located  in  a  church.  Right 
of  Swimming  Pool — Public  Library  whose  assembly  rooms  are  used  for  meetings.  Lower  Left — Junior  Hi-Y 
Cabinet.  Lower  Right — Senior  Hi-Y  Cabinet. 


22 


The  Narva  Refugee  Conference 

(Continued  from  page  13) 


After  the  forum,  in  conversing  with  many 
Russians,  I  came  to  see  clearly  that  the  Association 
secretaries  were  actually  being  accepted  by  the 
Russians  as  their  leaders,  because  of  the  true 
value  they  had  to  give  them  and  not  because 
of  the  position  the  Russians  found  them¬ 
selves  in. 

My  friend,  the  priest,  took  me  aside  and  began 
to  speak  about  the  Holy  Spirit.  “We  Russians  are 
dry.  There  was  a  time  when  we  burned  also,  but 
now  the  fire  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  not  in  us.  It  is  in 
you  Americans,  you  speak  fire,  your  eyes  burn 
when  you  speak.  We  are  grateful  to  you  brothers 
from  across  the  ocean:  we  will  not  fail  you,  the 
fire  is  beginning  to  burn  also  in  us.” 

That  night  at  the  banquet,  Father  Ostroumoff 
delivered  a  fine  speech  ending  in  an  appeal  to  his 
fellow  Russians  to  put  into  practice  the  lessons  of 
the  past  few  days,  that  the  drama  they  had  just 
enacted  might  not  become,  because  of  their  in¬ 
activity,  a  tragedy  in  real  life.  The  priest  forgot 


himself  completely  in  his  earnest  appeal  for  a 
higher  life. 

Then  Ritchie  took  the  floor  and  in  dead  silence 
began  his  speech  on  Leadership  for  a  changing 
world.  The  acoustics  of  the  room  were  perfect 
and  the  interpreter,  Miss  Shidlovsky,  a  daughter 
of  the  former  Vice  President  of  the  Russian 
Duma,  worked  as  in  a  trance.  No  better  setting 
could  have  been  desired  and  Ritchie  used  every 
bit  of  his  opportunity  as  he  drove  home  point 
after  point,  until  the  climax,  when  he  showed 
them  the  morning  sun  of  a  new  day  coming  up 
over  the  mountain  peak  of  their  present  mis¬ 
fortune. 

Almost  everyone  of  over  a  hundred  delegates 
went  away  a  new  man,  went  back  to  live  among  his 
fellow  refugees  determined  to  lift  them  to  higher 
levels:  By  the  next  day  the  news  had  reached 
Dorpat  and  in  the  homes  of  the  refugees  all  over 
Estonia  the  conference  became  the  main  topic  of 
conversation.  It  was  a  superb  conference  with  a 
superb  climax. 


The  Russian  Fort  Where  the  Narva  Conference  Was  Held 


23 


